A Holiday Theme from Wes Montgomery

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Happy Holidays from Jazz Guitar Hardball! And what better way to celebrate the holidays than with Wes Montgomery’s solo on “Snowfall”? Wes shows us how to capture an elegant and ethereal waltz-like feel on this A-A-B-A holiday classic, written by Claude Thornhill.

The strength of this solo lies in its ability to transform standard harmonies and arpeggios into warm and intuitive melodies and themes. The improvisation takes great care to outline the harmony of each chord change, but simultaneously does so in a very melodic manner with careful phrasing and use of rest space. Classic single-note Wes makes the holidays complete!

You can listen to Wes’ solo at:http://www.stevekhan.com/snowfall1.htm

For an original performance by Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, see the video on YouTube.

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Jim Bastian
A clinician and jazz educator, Jim Bastian is a 10 year veteran of teaching guitar in higher education. Jim holds two masters degrees and has published 6 jazz studies texts, including the best-selling How to Play Chordal Bebop Lines, for Guitar (available from Jamey Aebersold). He actively performs on both guitar and bass on the East Coast.

An avid collector and trader in the vintage market, you can visit Jim’s store at premierguitar.com (dealer: IslandFunhouse).